UW Highlights

Wyoming Public Media

As Wyoming’s only university, the University of Wyoming is committed to explore, create, and share knowledge. Wyoming Public Media captures the work of scholars, learners, and leaders who are committed to serving the state of Wyoming and contributing to national and international intellectual growth. You can hear some of our stories and features on these pages. They reflect the work of hundreds of individuals dedicated to the University of Wyoming vision to imagine the future and to create it.

As the Wyoming Cowboys prepare for their home football opener against Idaho, Head Coach Dave Christensen says there is no doubt that his team is better than past years.

People have taken note of Wyoming’s near upset of 18th ranked Nebraska. While the offense impressed a lot of people, Christensen is raving about the improved play of his defense that was worn down in the third quarter, but bounced back to help the team rally.

The Wyoming Cowboys have a tough task ahead of them Saturday. Wyoming opens the College football season Saturday/today against 18th ranked Nebraska. The Cornhuskers are led by Quarterback Taylor Martinez. Wyoming Head Coach Dave Christensen says that slowing down Martinez is critical.

“You know he’s a great player and he can hurt you in a number of ways and the key is to try and contain him and try and keep him in the pocket. When he breaks containment like any great Quarterback who has good feet and can throw… it becomes dangerous.”

Science can be fascinating, even to non-scientists. But when experts use a lot of industry jargon to explain their research, it can be hard to understand.

Now that funding for research is harder to come by, scientists need to do more to win over the public’s hearts and minds to back their work. The National Science Foundation will be hosting a workshop at the University of Wyoming to help scientists, engineers and other academics to communicate with the rest of us about their research.

The Wyoming Cowboys football team has a daunting task this weekend. The Cowboys travel to face the 18th ranked Nebraska Cornhuskers who have won 27 straight season openers. Nebraska features one of the top offenses in the Big Ten Conference, led by Quarterback Taylor Martinez. Wyoming Head Coach Dave Christensen is impressed with their size.

“They are difficult to defend because they got great players. They have an offensive line that is 6-6, 6-7, 6-7…320 pounds…they’re bulldozers”

The newly formed Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research has encountered a set-back under the University of Wyoming’s new administration.

The previous administration approved $60,000 in grant funding for faculty projects in the humanities. Grants would have funded projects like books, articles, exhibits, or lectures.

But UW President Bob Sternberg Thursday asked the Institute to cancel its request for proposals. Director Eric Sandeen says “the commitment of the university to the humanities stands,” but there will be revisions to the Institute’s financial plan.

The University of Wyoming will kick off a new school year on Monday. It’s an exciting time for incoming freshmen, but the college years bring new freedoms as well as new risks.

UW’s STOP Violence program offers crisis intervention and support for anyone on campus who’s been affected by sexual assault, relationship violence, or stalking, and works to educate students about the issues.

Wyoming Public Radio’s Becky Martinez spoke with UW’s new STOP Violence Coordinator Megan Selheim about what new students should bear in mind for the coming school year.

UPDATE Aug. 23, 2013: The money available for grants was based on the promises of the previous University administration. Under President Robert Sternberg, a smaller amount of money will be made available for grants, and the next few months will see revisions to the Humanities Institute plan.

PREVIOUSLY REPORTED:

The newly created Wyoming Institute for Humanities Research will offer University of Wyoming faculty grant funding for long-term projects.

Founding director Eric Sandeen says the Institute has $60,000 to distribute this fall.

Senior free safety, Marqueston Huff, wants to be a team leader for the Wyoming football team this year. As a defensive back, he has made 122 tackles, deflected ten passes and taken four interceptions. Not to mention scoring two touchdowns for the Cowboys.

Huff has also weathered all of the Cowboys’ ups and downs since 2010. The team has won each Border War rivalry game against Colorado State since he arrived in Laramie, but he’s also suffered through a bowl game loss and two losing seasons.

University of Wyoming faculty and staff have not had a pay raise since 2009, and U-W’s new President says that needs to be addressed. Bob Sternberg says U-W has lost important faculty to other institutions and morale among staff is low.

“Everybody knows who has a job that when your morale goes downhill, people don’t do their best work and we have a real serious morale problem here at the University of Wyoming and I’m really committed to resolving it.”

Last month, Bob Sternberg took over as the new president of the University of Wyoming. In recent weeks, has explained that he wants UW to attempt to be an inclusive University that doesn’t focus on things like a student’s ACT scores, and rather looks more at the whole package.

President Sternberg tells Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck that it’s more important to make sure students are properly prepared for higher education, and their future is much more important than test scores.

Roughly three years ago, two women undertook an effort to take a group of middle school girls in Jackson under their wing with the goal of helping them get into college. The effort is called College Bound Latinas and the program has had some early success. But a recent interaction with a University of Wyoming Professor is taking the girls even further as Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck reports.

Each year, millions of dollars are spent controlling invasive species in Wyoming. Just about every agency you can think of is involved – from local weed and pest districts, to the Department of Game and Fish, and even the Bureau of Land Management. Many people see their efforts as an important way to protect Wyoming’s diversity. But others worry that removing invasives could sometimes do more harm than good. Wyoming Public Radio’s Willow Belden reports.

The National Science Foundation recently awarded University of Wyoming assistant professor John Oakey its prestigious Faculty Early Career Development Award. Oakey, a chemical and petroleum engineer, will receive $400,000 to fund a project that will potentially make tissue regeneration experiments much faster, especially when studying diseases such as osteoarthritis.

The University of Wyoming has not given a pay raise to its faculty and staff in four years now and the board of trustees is concerned that scrimping on salaries has begun to adversely affect the education the university offers. David Bostrom, the president of the UW Board of Trustees, says that employee salaries don’t just need to compete state-wide but must also compete nationally and internationally within their fields.

The University of Wyoming has not given a pay raise to its faculty and staff in four years now and the board of trustees is concerned that scrimping on salaries has begun to adversely affect the education the university offers. David Bostrom, the president of the UW Board of Trustees, says that employee salaries don’t just need to compete state-wide but must also compete nationally and internationally within their fields.

Wyatt and Bridger Feuz and Hudson Hill didn’t plan to write about trees when they visited an abandoned arbor in Cheyenne, but that’s just what happened. The Horticultural field station hadn’t pruned any of its trees since the 1950s, and the educators were surprised to see many thriving. So they wrote “Scrappy Trees: Raw and Exposed.”

This month, the University of Wyoming will host a field course where students will explore the geographic, historical and religious significance of Heart Mountain in northern Wyoming.

Two educators will split the teaching of the course, one focusing on history, and the other on religion. The latter, Mary Keller, is a historian of religions and a lecturer at U-W. She spoke with Wyoming Public Radio’s Rebecca Martinez from the Big Horn Radio Network in Cody about what makes Heart Mountain so special.

Julianne Couch is the author of Traveling the Power Line, a book about the many energy sources we tap into for our power needs – from oil and gas, to wind, to solar and uranium.

Couch teaches at the University of Wyoming and has also written Jukeboxes and Jackalopes: A Wyoming Bar Journey and Waking Up Western: Collected Essays. She now lives in Iowa but stopped by the studio to talk to Wyoming Public Radio’s Irina Zhorov about her book.

The University of Wyoming’s new president, Robert Sternberg, started work today.

He says he’s looking forward to meeting educators, lawmakers, and citizens in Wyoming. And he says he has big plans for the university.

“My goal at UW is to collaborate with all stakeholders to help the University of Wyoming become the top land grant institution in the country, meaning that it will become the university that best educates and develops the ethical leaders who are going to make a positive, meaningful and enduring difference to the world,” Sternberg said.

In our occasional series on upstart businesses we take you to Laramie to tell you about a software company that is making a dent in the world of medicine. Mona Gamboa started Happy Jack Software in 2004 after she left her software job in Texas to join her husband who took a job at the University of Wyoming. Gamboa got a Master in Science in E Business from U-W and started Happy Jack software in the U-W Student Union. Wyoming Public Radio’s Bob Beck reports.

Historian Phil Roberts at the University of Wyoming recently published a book called “Cody’s Cave,” which tells the story of a vast set of caverns near Cody. The cave was once a national monument, but was then turned over to local control, and Roberts argues that that was a grave mistake, because the site is now just a hole in the ground, off limits to the public. Roberts joined Wyoming Public Radio’s Willow Belden to talk about the cave, and its demise.

As a graduate student in UW’s Creative Writing Program, LuLing Osofsky was fascinated by the various ways she saw Indian culture present in Laramie. South Asian students celebrated traditional festivals on campus, and the town had a good place to get curry. She writes about experiencing these pockets of India in her series of vignettes called “Wild Wild East: Finding Hints of Asia in the West.”